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29 Jul

July 29, 2008 |

Polly Dunten underwent surgery Monday morning to remove a brain tumor. Her husband Darwin, pastor of First UB in Findlay, Ohio, sent me this report this morning.

The surgery is over and the Lord answered our prayers.

The surgeon feels he got all of the tumor either through surgery or by burning it out. There is nerve damage and we will see to what extent in the next few days. She currently has numbness on her left side, However, I saw the most beautiful almost smile I ever saw this evening before I left her. The tumor was pressing hard on the brain stem.  It also “thinned” the nerve. Similar to an electric wire that looses its insulation.

Thank you so much for praying for us. God is good and I am so thankful He allowed me to have my wife for a little longer.

We heard from people from around the world and around the United States.  We are humbled. I have written a more indepth statement on Polly’s blog.

28 Jul

July 28, 2008 |

At Mainstreet Church, I used a big PVC pipe to illustrate the disciple-making process. Outside the pipe are people who don’t even acknowledge that God exists. But once they realize there is a God, they enter the pipeline, and we try to move them along–

  • realizing a need for God
  • learning about Jesus
  • realizing their need for Jesus
  • giving their life to Christ
  • and then growing.

It’s all part of the journey through the discipleship pipeline.

After a person came to Christ, I would tell him, “You need to go back to your non-religious friends and get them in the pipeline with you.”

“How do I do that?”

“Tell them what you did.”

So they’d come to church with someone on their arm, and would walk with them through the process.

Spiritual maturity is not measured by what you know, but by who is on your arm and heart on Sunday. If you don’t have someone on your arm and heart, don’t talk to me about your maturity.

25 Jul

July 25, 2008 |

Polly Dunten’s surgery to remove a brain tumor will be Monday morning, July 28, at 7:15. It should take 4-5 hours, and she’ll be hospitalized probably until Thursday. There is a lot more information on Polly’s blog in a post earlier today. Perhaps your church could remember this ministerial couple in prayer on Sunday.

25 Jul

July 25, 2008 |

On Wednesday, I encouraged all churches to get a domain name, whether or not they have current plans for a website. Now you may be wondering, “So where do we get a domain name?”

There are many places. My experience is limited to Network Solutions, Aplus.net, and Yahoo. Yahoo! was extremely frustrating, Aplus not so much. But I’ve transferred all UB domains to Network Solutions.

Network Solutions makes it easy to configure domains to use with websites hosted by other service providers. We have domains scattered among several providers, and have never had trouble configuring things through Network Solutions.

  • UB.org and UBMissions.com are hosted on the Huntington University system (with the server in my office).
  • Ubonline.org (home of the UB News page) is hosted by Aplus.net.
  • Bluehost.com hosts our atmychurch.com and healthyministryresources.com websites.

GoDaddy.com is the largest domain registrar; Tucows.com is also popular. I’m sticking with Network Solutions (which is a bit pricier) for the UB accounts, because I’ve had such good experience.

If you open an account with an internet service provider (Bluehost, Aplus, GoDaddy–there are scores of them), you often get a free domain name (at least for a year). But make sure the account is in the church’s name (not the name of a staff member or layperson). Make sure the church controls the name.

To search for available names, go to the homepage of Network Solutions or GoDaddy.

What advice or experience can you share?

24 Jul

July 24, 2008 |

2008EnglishCamp.jpgI’m in China participating in the English camp for Chinese teachers. We had the teachers participate in a values survey.

  • The number one value among our teachers: “Respect and honor your parents and grandparents.”
  • Least important: “Keeping oneself disinterested and pure.”

This requires some explanation. What they mean by this is that they want to remain connected with people, in touch, not aloof. “Pure” in this context is seen as negative. It implies that you are unwilling to be “dirtied” by others. I like that.

23 Jul

July 23, 2008 |

Your church needs a domain name.

  • The potential domain names for your church decline every day. Unless your church has an unusual name, or you add “ub” to the end, you’ll probably have trouble finding an appropriate name. So get on it now.
  • When my church, Anchor Community Church, started a website in 2002, we had a terrible time finding a good domain name. Most any name containing “Anchor” was already taken, and that was six years ago. We finally settled on “Anchorpeople.org.”
  • Domain names are bargain-priced real estate on the internet. Prices vary, but $20 a year might do it.
  • Once a name is gone, it’s gone. Unless somebody forgets to renew it somewhere down the road (in which case, somebody else will probably grab it first).

You don’t need a website to have a domain name.

  • Even if you have no immediate plans to create a website, I recommend obtaining a domain name. Set it on the shelf until you need it.
  • The national office owns 37 domain names, most of which aren’t being used. We’re just saving them for possible future needs, and don’t want anyone else to own them (like unitedbrethren.com, ubchurches.us, ubchildren.org, and ubusa.org).
  • If you have an internet service provider, you can possibly use your domain name for email even if you don’t have a website.

To search for available names, go to the homepage of Network Solutions or GoDaddy.

What advice or experience can you share?

22 Jul

July 22, 2008 |

Craig Mickey is the new Assimilation Pastor at Emmanuel Community Church (Fort Wayne, Ind.). For the past seven years, he has been youth pastor at Prince Street UB church (Shippensburg, Pa.). Prior to that, he was an intern at Emmanuel.

22 Jul

July 22, 2008 |

Dave Datema, UB ordained minister and endorsed missionary, talks on his blog, Freakin’ Missionary, about how God works slowly, and of our attempts to speed him up. He started with a post called “God’s Slow Ways,” which was followed by “Speeding God Up.” The latter says:

I find it hard to know when to wait on God to work His purposes and when to launch out in faith.  Great perils await us when we go to either extreme. Some people wait and do nothing, expecting God to do everything. Others are always doing things, sure that “God helps those who help themselves.” So how do we know which to do?